And don’t say the "techniques" weren’t around. The Eastern Europeans were doing some pretty amazing things to "help" human athletic activity during Olympic competition even in the 50’s.—Stephen

Could be because he raced in all the races, not just one a year. Put yourself in the place of an average team cyclist, racing every other day during the season. Who would you rather be beaten by, a man who’s been riding alongside you through all those races or one who arrives fresh to take the one race everyone in the world has heard of and every cyclist wants to win?—Just

Doesn’t at all. Are race organizers supposed to define how a racer gets to a race? Should the TdF be like a NASCAR race series where everyone drives cars that are largely standardized, not allowing automotive technology to dictate a winner?

Perhaps to qualify for the TdF you have to ride certain races and finish in certain ranks? Is there something like that already in place? I don’t think I could just sign up for it, so there must be some sort of prerequisites.

At any rate, race criteria don’t prohibit someone from doing as Lance does (specialize). If you choose to run yourself ragged riding flat out every weekend that’s your choice. If that isn’t to your liking, choose another race program.

Trashing Lance for his specialization strategy seems rather shallow, although it certainly is a consideration in determining his place among the greats of bike racing.—Stephen

LA is as much hero-worshipped in Europe as on your side of the pond. Indeed, I’m not sure there isn’t a week goes by without him being hero-worshipped in Cycling Weekly over here. So much so the mag gets letters reminding the editor that other world-class cyclists do exist :-)

Perhaps your version of Europe is about as accurate as life in USA is as depicted in "Dallas" Whaddya mean JR was fictional!;-)

Europeans dislike Americans in general, but then so do most other countries, but that is usually because Europeans want to be European, and not just to be a European copy of America.

If Lance goes around worshiping America and it’s system, then Europeans have no use for that, and he will not get far, if, on the other hand, he just sticks to what he knows, then in general they really don’t care, where your from.....—The